The admiral sometimes walks in the north garden, and he
might feel surprised at seeing you there. Come to my room, when you have
had air and exercise enough, and let me see how you are."
In a few minutes more Magdalen was out in the east garden. The sky was
clear and sunny; but the cold shadow of the house rested on the garden
walk and chilled the midday air. She walked toward the ruins of the
old monastery, situated on the south side of the more modern range of
buildings. Here there were lonely open spaces to breathe in freely; here
the pale March sunshine stole through the gaps of desolation and decay,
and met her invitingly with the genial promise of spring.
She ascended three or four riven stone steps, and seated herself on some
ruined fragments beyond them, full in the sunshine. The place she had
chosen had once been the entrance to the church. In centuries long gone
by, the stream of human sin and human suffering had flowed, day after
day, to the confessional, over the place where she now sat. Of all the
miserable women who had trodden those old stones in the bygone time,
no more miserable creature had touched them than the woman whose feet
rested on them now.
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